Fired Atlantic Beach city manager seeks Orange Park job

Monday

Jim Hanson, recently fired as Atlantic Beach city manager, has applied to become Orange Park town manager.

He was among 27 applicants as of noon Monday for the job, advertised with an annual salary range of $85,000 to $110,000, Interim Town Manager John Bowles told the Times-Union.

Hanson didn't immediately return Times-Union telephone messages seeking comment Monday. He earned about $130,000 annually as Atlantic Beach city manager, a job he held for 14 years.

On Dec. 9, the Atlantic Beach City Commission voted 3-2 to fire Hanson and City Attorney Alan Jensen without cause. The double termination came during a contentious meeting in which the public was split over the idea.

Mayor Carolyn Woods, who had introduced termination resolutions during a prior workshop, never gave specific reasons for wanting to terminate the men except to say that voters had repeatedly told her that they wanted change. Woods denied it was a personal vendetta. However, several current and past city officials said Woods repeatedly clashed with Hanson and Jensen over a variety of issues during her six years as a commissioner.

Tuesday is the application deadline for the Orange Park job. Others applying for the position include former Clay County Clerk of Court James Jett, Orange Park Town Clerk Sarah Campbell, who previously served as interim town manager, and Brunswick, Ga., City Manager William "Bill" Weeks.

Atlantic Beach has about 12,900 residents while Orange Park has nearly 9,000.

Bowles is coordinating the town manager search. He previously said that he isn't interested in returning to the job on a permanent basis. Bowles was town manager for 21 years until 2010 when the Town Council at the time fired him amid a personnel dispute over the former public works director.

Bowles is still expecting some last-minute applications and he said he's received inquiries from as far away as New York. Bowles plans to give all the applications and resumes to the council at its 7 p.m. Tuesday meeting at Town Hall. He will ask each council member to score and rank the applicants on a scale, either 1-5 or 1-10, so they can do the initial screening.

"My guess is they will probably weed out two-thirds of them at that point," said Bowles, adding it will give the council a chance to discuss the next phase of the selection process.

Bowles will recommend that all five council members, possibly along with a resident, participate in the selection process.

"My analogy has been, it's like getting married. And all five of them need to know who this bride may be," Bowles said.

If the council narrows the field down to about 10 applicants by its Jan. 21 meeting, the council then could do background checks on them before selecting up to five applicants for face-to-face interviews in February. Bowles hopes to have the whole process wrapped up and finalized in mid-February to the end of February.

"Conceivably, by the mid-part of March they could have a new manager on board," Bowles said.

Whoever gets the job will replace Cindy Hall, who retired Oct. 31.

Teresa Stepzinski: (904) 359-4075

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